Father’s Day Celebration Also Features BBQ and More

Bob Heinisch is Vice President for Site Operations at The New York Botanical Garden.

When people think of the Bronx, the thought of first-class institutions comes to mind. Two of the biggest in the borough, The New York Botanical Garden and the New York Yankees, have enjoyed a good relationship over the years. We’ve had appearances at our annual Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony by former Yankees such as Willie Randolph, Joe Pepitone, John Flaherty, and Bernie Williams, and most recently, the display of the 2009 World Series Trophy on Mother’s Day at our Shop in the Garden. (That’s me holding the trophy in the photo.)

On Father’s Day this year, Sunday, June 20, we’ll add another player to our roster as former Yankee Roy White comes to the Garden, from 1 to 3 p.m., for a casual talk and to sign copies of his book Then Roy Said to Mickey…: The Best Yankees Stories Ever Told, which will be available for sale.

A two-time member of the American League All-Star Team and a member of two world championship teams, Roy has been characterized as “a quiet, dignified man who led by example…[and] achieved popularity with fans and peers alike due to his classy, respectful, team-first attitude, and his subtle, momentous achievements.”

During an incredible 15-year career (1965–79) with the Yankees, he bridged the gap between the era of 1960s superstars Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, and Elston Howard and the superstars of the 1970s, Thurman Munson, Willie Randolph, and Reggie Jackson.
Don’t miss this opportunity to meet Roy White, whose appearance coincides with The Edible Garden’s first festival weekend, Get Out and Grill. This two-day celebration also features a Sunday BBQ perfect for Father’s Day.

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Love of Plants Is Natural for this Author
John Suskewich is Book Manager for Shop in the Garden.

We’ve always wanted to salute the body of work of Ken Druse, one of our very best garden writers; so the upcoming release of his latest book, Planthropology, was all the trigger we needed to schedule a booksigning here at Shop in the Garden on November 8, from 2 to 4 p.m.

Through his lectures, journalism, books, and designs, Ken has advocated a style of gardening that combines the beautiful and the ecological in a unique and important way. Long before the concept of “green gardening” was born, he was emphasizing an earth-sensitive design and horticulture that has increased in relevance exponentially over the years. Look at the titles of his books as he created this template: The Natural Garden, The Natural Habitat Garden, The Natural Shade Garden. He makes his case with an elegant, accessible prose voice and his own beautiful photography.

Planthropology: The Myths, Mysteries, and Miracles of My Garden Favorites is more plant centered and personal than his previous books. It encompasses history, botany, folklore, horticulture, and medicine, and illustrates the concept behind the neologism with a series of stories about plants and explorers, scientists, neighbors, artists, lost relatives, obsessive-compulsives, insects, and the author himself. Some of the plants he studies are the poppy, dove tree, fig, orchid, daphne, ginkgo, and one of my current favorites, the lore-laden Franklinia.

He emphasizes the “plantyness” of gardening in this book, because I think he senses with some alarm that, as technology and culture develop, the bonds that have always tied people and nature together are being pressured and pulled and might snap permanently. Toward the end of the book, he refers to the metastasizing condition of “plant blindness.” He recalls in a story about a Victorian girl’s childhood that not so long ago kids encountered nature naturally, as part of their daily lives, but especially in their play. In other books he has recollected his own ’50s suburban youth of walking in the woods and finding plants and building forts in oak trees. (That you inevitably fell out of and scraped your elbow and your mother sprayed you with vermilion Mercurochrome.) How differently we grow up today! Instead of becoming a naturalist and writer, Thoreau could have been joined to a joystick playing Grand Theft Auto for hours on end.

The New York Botanical Garden is a plant museum with a mission, and that is to make sure we preserve and protect not just the physical world of plants, which we do through our programs of research and conservation, but also to show that love of nature (what the naturalist Edward O. Wilson calls biophilia) is a fundamental part of our humanity. And that we do through our visitor experience of which Shop in the Garden (all the staff here are proud to say) is very much a part. So it is fitting that we have our fellow plant lover Ken Druse and his new book Planthropology here this season. We look forward to seeing you when you come to meet him on November 8!